Recent years have seen the popularization of touch panel devices such as portable game devices and smartphones that incorporate touch panels and that enable intuitive manipulation by the operator. A touch panel has both the function of displaying images and the function of receiving input from the operator.
When any type of process is to be performed upon data indicated by an image displayed on the touch panel of a touch panel device, the operator first places his or her finger or a special stylus in contact with the image displayed on the touch panel to select the image. The operator next selects the type of processing, such as storage of the data, that is to be performed upon the data indicated by the image that was selected.
At this time, the operator must select the type of processing by using, for example, a menu screen for selecting the type of processing. In other words, the operator must know beforehand the operation for displaying a menu screen on the touch panel and is therefore unable to fully utilize the special advantage of the touch panel device, which is to enable intuitive operation.
Here, a technology is disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 1 for realizing control of an image that is displayed on a touch panel by operating an additional touch panel.